


something better beginning

by FakePlastikTrees



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 01:08:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2753924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FakePlastikTrees/pseuds/FakePlastikTrees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny and Mindy are growing closer again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	something better beginning

**Author's Note:**

> A little vignette taking place around the time Danny and Mindy are making nice again before hot cop and all of that.

He is late to his mid afternoon workout when his phone rings. His messenger bag is this close to slipping off his shoulder so he doesn’t’ really look at his phone when he answers it.

 

“Yeah, hello.”

 

“Do you have any bandaids?”

 

He looks at his phone and Mindy’s smiling face greets him, a picture she herself assigned and that he can’t remember when. “Min?”

 

“I uh, I fell and scraped my knee and I’m gushing blood all over the kitchen I can’t find band aids.”

 

“You what?” His bag does fall now heavy and limp on his office floor as he begins to pace. “Mindy what—are you _drunk_?”

 

“Ladies don’t get ‘drunk’, Danny. I’m—yes, I am. I’m drunk. But I am bleeding all over and my knee hurts, Danny, can you please help?”

 

“Did you look in the first aid kit that you have in your bathroom?”

 

“It’s not there, Danny, please…” She sounds whiny and like she’s ready to cry and like it or not, he’s already grabbing headed out the door.

 

He knows the first aid kit is there. Because he bought it himself before telling her where it would be in case of an emergency. He was anxious to get to her. Even if her definition of ‘gushing blood all over’ was different than the average person’s. Things are different now since they decided to be friends again and he can’t allow himself certain liberties. But Mindy is Mindy, and she doesn’t have the same reservations as Danny does.

 

They’ve been slowly getting closer and she is beginning to let him in once again. Danny’s heart has the tendency to jump at the chance to be near her. So, drunk exaggeration or not, he races to her apartment and as only one thing comes to mind when he walks through her open door and finds her siting on the kitchen counter with her knee drawn up at eye level as she inspects it closely.

 

“It’s one pm, why are you drunk?”

 

She jumps a little and clutches her chest, her eyes wide and her mouth open in surprise. “Oh my god, Danny you scared me! Why would just barge in like that! What’s wrong with you!”

 

“What’s wrong with me? Your door was wide open! You’re like what slasher flicks are made for!”

 

“How _dare_ you!”

 

He sighs dramatically with his head thrown back and his eyes tightly shut. “Oh my god, Mindy!”

 

“Don’t be mean, I’m bleeding to death!”

 

“Let me get the first aid kit.”

 

He finds the kit exactly where he said he’d leave and exactly where Mindy didn’t look. He blows a thick layer of dust off the top as he comes back to the kitchen and shakes his head in disappointment. “Min, have you not opened this since I bought it?”

 

“I haven’t had an emergency that needed the magic kit, Danny.”

 

“It’s been months! Some of this stuff is expired, Mindy, you have pay attent—whoah, what are you doing?” He turns his head away, cheeks already reddening as Mindy freezes for a moment where she’s standing in the kitchen with her dress hiked up and both hands underneath it.

 

“Relax, I’m just taking off my tights, perv.” She’s fighting a smirk that has maybe a little to do with the five or so mimosas consumed at brunch.

 

“Okay, well, warn me before you do that.” He can hear her shoes as she kicks them off, presumably to peel the tights completely off.

 

“Why?” She asks before she hops back on the counter top. “You’ve gotten pretty personal with my legs in the past. What’s the big deal?”

 

He glares at her now and decides he’s not going to let her make him squirm when she’s the drunk one. No sir. He is the sober one. He is the level headed one. “That’s cute. Can I see your gash now?”

 

“Maybe later.” She quickly responds.

 

“Your _wound_ , Mindy, stop it.”

 

“Okay, I’m sorry.”

 

“Okay.” He sets the small metal case down beside her to shrug his jacket off to drape it over the nearest stool before rolling his sleeves up past his elbows. “Let’s take a look here.” He licks his lips as she lifts her right leg up for him. She has a small cut on her knee, but there’s a hearty trail of blood that’s run all the way down her leg to her ankle. “Okay, let’s clean this up.”

 

“I told you I was bleeding to death,” She says in a hushed whisper as she leans back on her hands.

 

He can feel her watching him. She has that distinctive drop in her voice that makes him crazy, and he almost forgets what he’s looking for when he reaches in the kit. Luckily, the first thing his hand touches is a small pack of antiseptic wipes and for that he is grateful. The last thing he needs is to seem incompetent when he’s trying to clean a scraped knee for god’s sake.

 

He peels one open and Mindy automatically parts her knees a little for him to step between before he lifts the injured limb, holding it one hand as he gently wipes the blood off beginning at her ankle and traveling upwards. He breathes so carefully as he goes, and he can feel her shift a little as he gently squeezes her calf and reaches her knee, where he cleans around the wound with expert ease.

 

When she gasps, he looks up at her. Her chest is heaving and her lids are heavy as she stares back. He swallows. He is in serious shit now. “Does that hurt?”

 

She shakes her head and very softly says, “No.”

 

“Good.” He disposes of the pad and grabs another. As he gently cleans the cut, he finds enough concentration to ask, “So, what has you drinking before noon? Hot date?” He tries not sound like he’s prying so he doesn’t look at her.

 

She takes in a breath that sounds a bit strangled before replying, “No. I was at brunch with Gwen. She’s uh, she’s in town and we—we had brunch.”

 

“Oh, yeah? How is Gwen? Does she like Denver?”

 

“She does, yeah,” Mindy says, and then whispers something he swears is ‘oh god’ but he pretends not to.

 

“And how’s little Riley?”

 

“She’s great. She’s no longer talking like a baby, so that’s a start.”

 

“I like Riley.”

 

“Yeah, she’s a cute kid.”

 

The bandage is on and he feels accomplished. He showcases this in a smile as he looks up and gently lets her leg down. “You’re a cute kid yourself. All done.”

 

“Don’t call me kid, you’re going to make this weird.”

 

“What? Make what weird?”

 

She doesn’t say anything. She’s leaning back with most of her weight against her hands, her shoulders are shrugged in a way that makes her low cut neckline fall even lower, a wisp of hair has fallen over her eyes, which are dark, and she looks like a fucking painting.

 

“You look like you want to kiss me,” She says, her voice all breathy and flirtatious.

 

Danny feels the tone down the front of his pants and he self-consciously takes a step back. “I do.”

 

“You do?”

 

“Yeah--”

 

“—then come here and kiss me.” She sits up, reaches out for him traces his cheek with her finger.

 

Danny shivers, shuts his eyes for what seems like an eternity, and suddenly, he’s kissing her. He’s dragging her towards the edge of the counter and she’s arching into him, sighing into his mouth and tilting her head as she laves her tongue over his.

 

She tastes like orange juice and champagne, and he feels dizzy. He’s missed her. So much, _too much_.

 

He draws back suddenly and frames her face in his hands, allowing her to steal one more kiss before standing back again. “We should, we should stop.”

 

“What? Why?” She wrenches herself from his grasp and somehow manages to pull him back for a kiss he dodges, her lips landing on his cheek instead.

 

“I want to—do this right, I want—I want you to have the man you deserve. And that man would wait for a better time when you’re not drunk, after he’s maybe cooked you a very large, very intricate but non filling dinner. This time I want to do it right.”

 

“Damn it,” She says in a sigh as she shakes her head. “Damn it, that was good. Okay.”

 

It’s an official beginning. He can feel it. He didn’t know second chances could ever feel this good.

 

He helps her off the counter and in the midst of some awkward walking into and around each other, Danny remembers he was headed for the gym before all of this.

 

“I’m going to go, if you’re good now.”

 

She’s leaning against the sink as she watches him walk backwards towards the door. She’s smiling that slightly drunken smirk of hers that is entirely too inviting. “Sure. I’m fine.”

 

“Okay. Bye.”

 

“Bye.”

 

He jogs the mile and a half to the gym, and he does it with an extra bounce in his step. Mindy Lahiri will no longer be a woman not associated with Danny Castellano, and that is the best thing that’s happened to him all year.


End file.
